Weekend Book News!

• This week marks the 40th anniversary of Frederick Foresyth's thriller novel The Day of the Jackal about an assassin from a French terrorist group hired to killed the French president Charles de Gaulle. The novel has won many an award since its publication in 1971 and although the opening scene supposedly re-enacts a true assassination attempt on the life of Charles de Gaulle, the rest of the novel is pure fiction. As I mentioned I have not read it yet but know enough about it all these years to finally have allocated the time to crack on with it. Will let you know how I get on with it as soon as its done.

• It is so strange how when old people rant and rave we take it as humour just because of their age we think, and that they have reached a point in their lives when it doesn't matter what they say and so they shall say it. The more absurd the rant is, it guarantees that at least if nobody agrees then at least they'll be heard and noticed amongst the chaotic noisiness of today's youth. So, OK not only do I get VS Naipaul's rant this week regarding women writers reported by the Guardian. To see the article, click here.

• It has been a real pleasure this week on Sky Arts HD to have four episodes of The Book Show staged at the Hay Festival. Mariella Frostrup's guests were genuinely into it although by far my surprise favourite was Elif Shafak (author of The Bastard of Istanbul). A truly inspiring, gifted woman and it was wonderful to hear how although raised in Turkey for most of her young life and then in Britain she "thinks in both English and Turkish" and her comparisons between the two languages and their use in literature were a true eye-opener and something to consider. I look forward to reading her new book The Forty Rules of Love which is out now.